


How Did It Get So Late So Soon?

by In_Time_of_Peril



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/F, Gen, Time War Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-24
Updated: 2015-04-24
Packaged: 2018-03-25 13:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3812428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/In_Time_of_Peril/pseuds/In_Time_of_Peril
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor, busily avoiding the Time War, observes and ponders old friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Did It Get So Late So Soon?

It’s a nice park, quiet for now, with a lot of trees around to shelter visitors from the wind.  He finds a bench and he sits, pulling his old leather coat tighter around him.  There’s a tightness in the air too - somewhere, Time has slipped and things have fallen prematurely into place.  Or perhaps not prematurely, no.  But something’s been done, been fixed.

He sees them across the way, sitting on a blanket, a picnic basket between them and a young child racing around nearby.  The thought of little ones makes him smile and recall his own children.  Of course, he has grandchildren by now.  Even great-grandchildren.

Well, he **had** great-grandchildren.

One of the parents on the blanket calls to the child, lures her in for a nose-wiping.  The toddler fusses a bit, then flops down across the other parent’s lap.  The Doctor can hear their voices easily.

“Hey, snot,” the parent currently being used as a seat says, and gets a smack on the arm from their partner as reward.

“Ace, don’t call her that!”

“Ah, Mel, she knows I’m not bein’ mean.  I’m nice, huh?  Baba’s always nice to Kathy.”

The child giggles and hugs Ace, then scrambles up, wanting to be chased.  Ace complies, rushing after her offspring, growling a bit.  That makes the Doctor shudder, remembering why Ace is so good at sounding like a big Cat.  A glance tells him that the situation has put a momentary scare into Mel too, but in another instant she looks calm.  Centered and happy.

For a long time he watches them all, Ace and Mel and their child, until Ace manages to catch the little one (Kathleen; he knows from the birth announcement.)  Ace is laughing, surprisingly out of breath, and when she turns to carry Kathleen back over toward the blanket, she staggers slightly with a weak knee.

He thinks of going to her, of helping her if she’ll allow it.  After all, once upon a time, she was like one of his children.

Of course, he was never the best parent.

Ace has paused now, halfway to her destination, and turned suddenly toward him.  She has that hunted look in her eyes, the wild, feral look he knows so well.  Just as suddenly Mel is standing too, looking straight toward him, head cocked to one side a little curiously.  She knows him, would now anywhere, but there’s a familiar thought going through her head.

_‘Why do you look like that?‘_

He could tell her, one day.  Could tell both of them about the shooting, the surgery, waking up freezing and alone in a hospital morgue with no memory of anything.

Right this moment he could walk up and tell them about all of it, and about the hundreds of years he’s lived since.  He would, but he’s not certain he likes the way Ace is looking at him, as if she’d like to make him regenerate once more.

He wonders what he’s done, or will do.  Before, ages ago when he saw her last (at least in his timeline at present), they were friends again.  They were almost like they had been when she first traveled with him, or so he thought.

Now, though, Ace really does look as if she hates him.  Her eyes are flashing, tinted a threatening gold, and there’s a hint of a snarl around her lips.  She’s got a grip on Kathleen like she thinks someone (He?  Certainly not!) might take the child away.

Standing slowly, the Doctor raises a hand and waves.  He even manages a smile, and he’s pleased when at least Mel waves in return.  She doesn’t smile, though - that’s unusual, for her.  But then, by now, she’s probably not exactly the Melanie he once knew.

Ace nods, then turns from him and marches over toward the blanket.  He watches her, some part of him keening inside for the old friendship they once had, before he too turns away and wanders back toward his TARDIS.

He lets his coat fall open long before he reaches his destination, and once he’s through the doors he strips it off and tosses it over the back of a chair.  Time for a change again, if not of persona, then of clothes.  Maybe a look back.  He’s still got some of the things he used to wear when this body was young.  They’re a bit aged now, threadbare and stained, but it would be nice to wear the old things again.  To remember.

Really, more than anything what he’d like is to forget.  Forget the life this has been, forget the things he’s seen and done, **had** to do.  He’d like to forget the war that’s raging now, tearing apart all of reality.  Oh, he’ll keep helping people - that’s unavoidable.  It’s a part of his nature, by now.

Still, it would be nice not to think about **why** he helps now.  About the burning worlds and the screaming youngsters.  About how easily all of his old friends could be harmed, **have** been harmed, by the atrocities now shattering all of time and space.

The TARDIS groans, as if sympathising with his feelings, and he pats a part of the console fondly.

“Come on, you old darling,” he whispers, flipping a switch.  
“Time to move on.”


End file.
